Flame follows evaporating dish?

Question

why is it that, when i held the evaporation dish over the flame of a tirrell burner, the flame follows the dish where ever we move it?

Answer 1

I'm not certain about this, but I can make a guess. As the evaporation dish is held over the flame, it heats up. This, in turn, heats up the surrounding air. Hot air rises, so the heated air under the dish begins streaming around the sides of the dish and continues upwards. This motion of air entrains more air and the burning fuel from below, causing it to be drawn up towards the hotspot on the bottom of the dish as it moves away from the current location of the flame. If you moved the dish quickly enough or far enough away, the flame would not follow because you would disrupt the airflow and/or the motion of air would be too far away to affect the flame.